Ellis Act Requirements

There are a number of requirements a landlord must follow in an Ellis eviction:

The landlord must remove all units in a building from the rental market.

The landlord can not single out one tenant (for example the one with low rent) or remove just one unit form the market. It is all or nothing.

After invoking Ellis, the landlord can not re-rent the unit for more money than the evicted renter was paying for a period of five years following the eviction.

The landlord may not invoke the Ellis Act during a fixed term lease.

Important! - In 2006 Mayor Gavin Newsom signed legislation making buildings with evictions ineligible for condo conversion. As many Ellis evictions are invoked for the purpose of eventual condo conversion this severely limits the options for landlords seeking to “Ellis” their properties. The legislation prohibits any conversion of a building which has had, since May 1, 2005, either multiple evictions or any single eviction of a senior or disabled tenant. These eviction prohibitions will become part of the basic eligibility criteria for condo conversions.